Installation: Linux

vscode-R

Install vscode-R in VS Code by searching reditorsupport.r in extension marketplace.

vscode-R 3.0.0 requires VS Code 1.110 or later. The first time a managed R terminal starts, accept the prompt to install the bundled sess R package.

If your R installation is from CRAN, then the default settings should work out of the box. Otherwise, set r.consolePath to the R console executable used by R: Create R terminal. Use r.executablePath separately if background processes require a different, vanilla R executable.

languageserver

languageserver is an implementation of the Language Server Protocol for R.

Run the following commands in R.

You may install the latest stable release from CRAN:

install.packages("languageserver")

or install the development version with the newest features:

remotes::install_github("REditorSupport/languageserver")

You can also install the rmarkdown package and Pandoc rendering library to see formatted R help pages upon hover. Previews of function documentation without these dependencies will show a plain page.

rmarkdown can be installed with:

install.packages("rmarkdown")

Pandoc is automatically installed if you have RStudio on your machine. See the official installation guide here if you do not have RStudio.

VSCode-R-Debugger

VSCode-R-Debugger is a VS Code extension that implements R debugging capabilities. It depends on vscDebugger.

1. Install VSCode-R-Debugger extension in VS Code.
2. Install vscDebugger package via

remotes::install_github("ManuelHentschel/vscDebugger")

Plot backends

vscode-R supports two optional interactive plot backends:

• JGD is lightweight, has no external R-package dependencies, and is usually simpler to install.
• httpgd provides a mature, feature-rich SVG viewer over HTTP and WebSockets, but has a larger compiled dependency footprint.

Install either or both:

install.packages("jgd")
install.packages("httpgd", repos = c("https://nx10.r-universe.dev", "https://cran.r-project.org"))

Leave r.plot.backend at its default value, "auto", to try JGD first, then httpgd, then the standard viewer. You can instead set it explicitly to "jgd" or "httpgd". See Plot viewer for details.